• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 668 0

of this jewelry change for Claire throughout the book? Do you have a piece of jewelry that holds meaning for you? Is its worth measured in monetary or sentimental value? Have you inherited an antique or valued treasure from a loved one that carries important memories for you?

2. The book described the elaborate floral displays that Claire and Madame Palain created for the Nazi-occupied hotels, as well as flowers tumbling down a garden wall and a bucketful of simple stems that Claire loved. What did these different flowers represent in the book? What did they mean personally to Claire? Do certain flowers hold meaning for you?

3. Did you find elegance in Claire’s expensive Manhattan brownstone, or in the simple wine and bread dinners Madame Palain served, or both? Give other examples of elegance from the book. How do these different examples each represent elegance? In today’s society, do you believe people define elegance based on material things, or is it an attitude and an approach to life?

4. Madame Palain told Claire that “elegance is in the details” the first night they met. How did Madame demonstrate this belief in her daily life and in the way she ran La Vie en Fleurs? Did Claire embrace this way of living? How did it shape her actions and beliefs? Have you had a similar mentor in your life?

5. Claire went to Paris to change her life. She did, but was it in the way she’d expected? Where in the story did you see a dramatic shift in Claire? How many people were touched by Claire’s character growth? Have you had an experience that transformed your life in unexpected ways?

6. How did Claire’s changing perception of Grey mirror her own shifting consciousness? Did your opinion of Grey change along with Claire’s? How was he different from other men whom Claire had known? What was it about Grey that drew her in?

7. Why did Claire assume that the Oberons would take in Marta and Anna? Would you risk your safety and open your home to children in peril?

8. Odette pressed Claire to put her life in danger to save the Resistance leader Kinsel, and justified it by saying, “We are in a war, Claire. I must sometimes act as a soldier, not as a friend.” Could you ask your friends to risk their lives in an attempt to fight a great evil?

9. What historical details of life under the Occupation were most surprising or moving for you? In what ways do novels provide a means for understanding history?